Gender Discrimination and HRM: A Case Study of Walmart

This report analyzes the gender discrimination issues at Walmart, as highlighted in a news article discussing a lawsuit alleging unequal pay and unfair treatment of female employees. The report examines how Walmart's HR practices, or lack thereof, have contributed to these issues, focusing on the absence of updated policies and a lack of focus on workforce development and contemporary approaches. It identifies key HRM disciplines, including the promotion of gender equality, equal pay, and family-friendly policies, and emphasizes the need for increased awareness and fair treatment in the workplace. The report also highlights the importance of addressing issues like unequal pay, unfavorable recruitment strategies, and bias to ensure a fair and equitable environment for all employees. The analysis draws on various sources to underscore the significance of these issues and the need for corporations to prioritize ethical and socially responsible HRM practices.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Locating the news article describing the gender discrimination issues
theglobeandmail.com. (2020). Walmart likely discriminated against female workers, U.S.
agency says. Retrieved 11 February 2020, from
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/us-business/article-
walmart-likely-discriminated-against-female-workers-us-agency-says/
Explaining the issues by briefly summarizing the newspaper article
It has been identified that world’s largest supermarket giant Wal-Mart is again facing
greater level of controversies in relation to gender discrimination. The news article state the
fact that almost 100 employees have filled the gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-
Mart on February 1 highlighting the denial of equal pay for the retail store as well as
particular salaried management (theglobeandmail.com 2020). It has been identified that the
issue is about less pay in existing Wal-Mart employees and the ones who already left the
company. One of the ex-employees of Wal-Mart claimed that she trained many managers
and employees but did not receive the required wages; this means despite fulfilling all job
responsibilities and helping employees to their promotional doors, the suitable women
candidates are paid low or they are underpaid. Likewise, another female employee claimed
that “I went from working 50 hours a week to 80 to 90 hours a week and I asked for a pay
increase, as I was working a whole other departments. But, my claim was turned down by
Wal-Mart’s manager.
Furthermore, the article published on The Globe and Mail reveals the fact that Wal-
Mart retained a specific group of culture that existed way before 1990 and it continued on.
Even though women are working in multiple positions but they do not receive suitable
opportunity for promotion and growth. In this context, Daniel (2020) argued that gender gap
in the corporate sector has been a significant issue as despite growing level of female talents,

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female candidates in the corporate sector do not fair treatment in relation to pay, position and
promotion. In order to justify the degree of biased organisational culture in the corporate
sector, Lamm (2015) mentioned that only 6.4% of board seats are held by women in the
region.
Describing how the article provides illustration on the impact of HR
practices on Wal-Mart
The scenario and issues presented by Globe and Mail article state the fact that the
organisation Wal-Mart did not update its HR policies despite the constant claims and public
voices in relation to equal pay and discrimination. Every large organisation in the corporate
sector today are significantly are concerned about the social and ethical responsibility in such
context, diversity has been a significant HR practices. Nonetheless, as there have been several
layers of management in Wal-Mart, Human Resource department of the organisation did not
pay an equal level of focus on all managerial level of operation. The ongoing HRM practices
reflects the lack of focus on its workforce development program, lack of consideration about
external market factors like industry wage standards and lack of contemporary approaches in
the practice. The issue stated above is particular in relation to pay and discrimination in HRM
practices. In addition to this, the current HRM practice at Wal-Mart indicates that a complete
gap of communication in the HRM department. This happens, as the senior management of
Wal-Mart decides the HRM planning; there have been several layers in the management
often deprived from the corporate decisions taken by Wal-Mart’s management. Moreover,
each store of Wal-Mart has its own separate responsibility for HR management and thereby,
managerial decisions taken by senior management is not reflected across all its branches.
This means that the organisation holds a varying interpretation of corporate interpretation of
corporate human resource plan. This approach unexpectedly creates the challenge in

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maintaining the balance in employee wages. Existing practices do not consider the industry
wage requirements and such negligent attitude can definitely affect brand image of Wal-Mart.
Human Resource disciplines identified in the article
It has been identified that even though Human Resource Management sector in the recent
time have got utmost attention due to customers’ own concern about social and ethical duties,
pressure from the government and Labour Union policies. As put forward by Williams (2013)
developing the fact that gender matter in the organisation is considered to be the most
significant achievement in twentieth century. In this context, Selmi and Tsakos (2015)
mentioned the fact that the continuous production of gender affect individual understanding
of gender but it also has the tendency to generate gender based domination and exclusion.
Cleveland, Vescio and Barnes-Farrell (2013) insisted on the fact that gender biased practice
and techniques can significantly affect both men and women in multiple ways and in several
cases, it creates undue advantages for the both the gender. The contemporary human resource
practices state the fact that in spite of progressive efforts, still there has to be a wider level of
inequality in workplace across the developed and developing nations (Kim, Lee & Sung,
2013). On the basis of the case scenario of Wal-Mart, it can be mentioned that government,
employee and several other corporate bodies have paid attention to unfair practice of salary
discrepancies between male and female employees.
When it comes to HR disciplines in the article, it is noted that the entire article mostly
tall about the promotion and awareness of gender equality at work. It is noted that Gender
inequality in the workplace might include hiring/positioning or increase in pay only one
gender for the specific role. Thus, it can be mentioned that the organisation especially the
large corporate player like Wal-Mart needs to increase awareness and promote fair level of
behaviour, provide equal payment benefits, family-friendly policies (Imam & Shah, 2013).

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The disciplines must have to focus on successful women in the company, both externally and
internally through different media channels. The policies should ask women to act women so
that they remain in the limelight.
It can be mentioned that considering the global HR practice requirements, the corporate brand
needs to focus on enhancing policies for fair pay and work/life balance as well as ensure
managers complete support the policies. Furthermore, Daniel (2020) mentioned that the
battle for equal pay is more prominent gender equality issue as the new resolutions ensure
that the possible gap between men and women’s pay which should be similar than once it was
in the corporate sector. Moreover, the HRM disciplines mentioned in the article also state the
fact that as an employer, the organisation must have to make sure that men and women
receive equal pay for the work which is equivalent in relation to skills, extra works and
degree of responsibility. According to recent legislative framework employees can
significantly request discussion to highlight the issue whether they are being paid fairly paid
under the Equality Act 2010 (Lamm, 2015). This should definitely include a clear set of
information regarding the pay structure, bonuses and across the pension.
Williams (2013) also mentioned that the fact that brand image of the organisation is
most likely to be tarnished if the employees think that pay stricture in the organisation is not
fair enough the work and duties they perform. It can be mentioned that such issue is more
transparent but there is a significant gap requirement in gender pay to consider. As put
forward by Selmi and Tsakos (2015), there have been several legislations came into effect on
6th April 2017 and the amendment is further noted in 2018 and according to the legislation
any business with 250 and above can significantly publish the pay gap data. The HR
disciplines like unequal pay, unfavourable recruitment strategy, different opportunities, bias,
redundancies, etc are the major disciplines in contemporary HRM practices. The corporate
heads must have to consider and implement such disciplines. For example, unfavourable

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recruitment strategies is one of significant disciplines and it can definitely include the
questions whether a female candidate wishes to have children or such facilities and
flexibilities should be there for female employees. Likewise, unequal pay is another context
in the discipline that is properly reflected on the article. This means sexism is a broader level
of issue in the corporate organisations but the large organisations must have to consider the
government guidelines about this matter. There should not be any level of biasness in the
work practices. This means that showing preferential treatment towards male employees over
female employees like promotion or day to day conversation.
Kim, Lee and Sung (2013) mentioned that holding or forming sexiest views is another
significant area in the policies that brand must have to consider when developing or
implementing HRM policies. For example, promoting outdated views in relation to men and
women or any sort of gender stereotype can be a challenging factor in HRM practices. Thus,
it is highly important for the organisation to remain vigilant to have a clear set of policies on
how the brand expect its employees to behave around the setting

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Resources
Cleveland, J. N., Vescio, T. K., & Barnes-Farrell, J. L. (2013). Gender discrimination in
organizations. In Discrimination at work (pp. 177-204). Psychology Press.
Imam, A., & Shah, F. T. (2013). Impact of gender bias on organizational commitment: an
empirical study of glass ceiling practices in corporate sector of Pakistan. Elixir
Human Resource Management, 57(2013), 14111-14115.
Kim, H., Lee, J. K., & Sung, S. (2013). The effects of family-friendly practices and gender
discrimination on job attitudes: The moderating role of supervisor support. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(20), 3921-3938.
Lamm, K. E. (2015). Work in Progress: Civil Rights Class Actions After Wal-Mart v.
Dukes. Harv. CR-CLL Rev., 50, 153.
Selmi, M., & Tsakos, S. (2015). Employment Discrimination Class Actions After Wal-Mart
v. Dukes. Akron L. Rev., 48, 803.
theglobeandmail.com. (2020). Walmart likely discriminated against female workers, U.S.
agency says. Retrieved 11 February 2020, from
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/us-business/article-
walmart-likely-discriminated-against-female-workers-us-agency-says/
W. Daniel. (2020). Walmart likely discriminated against female workers, U.S. agency says.
Retrieved 11 February 2020, from
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/us-business/article-
walmart-likely-discriminated-against-female-workers-us-agency-says/
Williams, C. L. (2013). The glass escalator, revisited: Gender inequality in neoliberal times,
SWS feminist lecturer. Gender & Society, 27(5), 609-629.

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